Full Show Podcast: 21 January 2026

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Digging through the spend to find the real story. It's
Ryan Bridge on Heather duperic Ellen Drive News Talk said.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
Be good afternoon. We'll be across the weather. It is
bloody wet across the country, so we'll keep you abreast.
Auckland is no longer the most expensive place to buy
a house in New Zealand. David Seymour joins us on
the election campaign. We have a date Martin Snedden on
the problem facing sports bosses in this country. Plus we're
in the UK and the US. Ryan Bridge, great to

(00:29):
have your company this afternoon. Now, did you hear the
great news we are getting rid of the Grocery commissioner job? Yay,
I can hear you clapping up and down the country.
And it's about time. It's been an utter waste of
time and money. It was one of those Wellington born
pr jobs that Labor Design came up with, dreamt up
to make it look like they were on top of

(00:51):
the cost of living crisis, the crisis they of course
helped create. Now. Paula Rebstock did a review into the
Commerce Commission last year and the Cabinet papers and with it,
the role of groceries are and the Telecommunications Commissioner as well,
is basically going to be written out of existence. We've
had about two years with the grocery commissioner salary and

(01:13):
the hundreds of thousands of dollars. How much cheaper are
your groceries, dear listener when you go to the checkout,
how much have you saved? How much more competitive is
the duopoly now? Exactly? Waste of time and money. The
money could have been better spent subsidizing butter for poor families.
Surely a couple one hundred thousand dollars a year wouldn't

(01:35):
sniff at that. The story doesn't quite end here, though,
I'm afraid, because as part of the ComCom rejig that's
been proposed, a new board is being set up five
members and then a separate panel with up to twelve
people appointed by the minister. As well as this, you'll
be horrified to learn regulatory committees that will do monitoring.

(02:00):
So you have a board, you have a twelve person panel,
and you have I don't know how many multiple committees.
This sounds like a boatload of head honchos to me.
Do we think things will change for us? Plubs at
the supermarket aisle? At the petrol pump where apparently we
were being fleeced. Remember that when we pay the monthly

(02:23):
power bill, how much will we pay the slot? What
is the measure of their success? What are their KPIs
We need good regulators, of course we do, and we
need good regulation to make sure the system is fair
for all the players. But are the resources needed at
the top or the bottom of the food chain? How
much actual work do the commissioner types actually do on

(02:45):
a day to day basis. Here's a question for you.
If we cut the number in half, would anybody notice?
Would your groceries and your petrol suddenly become more expensive?
I suspect the answer is no, and probably not, in
which case you've got to ask yourself what the point
of these cushy jobs is for in the first place.

(03:06):
Ran Bridge, nine minutes after four Now a hobby shop.
This is a story, and there's been a couple of
these cases in the last few days, so I wanted
to highlight one of them with you this afternoon. This
is particularly egregious. A hobby shop worker recovering in hospital
today after a violent run in with some suspected teenage shoplifters.

(03:26):
Three teens accused of taking some Pokemon cards. Yes, that's
all they wanted. This is a New Market yesterday evening. Now,
worker in the shop gives chase. One of them turns round,
allegedly turns round stabs him with a pocket knife. Thomas
James saw the whole thing happen. He's with me now.
Good afternoon, Thomas Ryan, how are you very well? Thank you?

(03:48):
So tell us what you saw?

Speaker 3 (03:50):
Right.

Speaker 4 (03:51):
So, I'm grabbing some late lunch in New Market yesterday afternoon,
and observerby I thought was a scuttle between two young guys,
so I went over and attempted to break it up.
One of the gentlemen told me that he worked at
a store and the guy was a shoplifter, so I
told him he's gonna have to wait there. At that point,
the shopkeeper pulled a shirt up and realized that he'd

(04:12):
been stabbed. And I saw the alleged defender with a
knife in his hands. So I took him to the
ground pretty quickly and held him there for the police
to arrive.

Speaker 2 (04:23):
So you took him to the ground like what tackled
him even though he had a pocket knife.

Speaker 4 (04:29):
No, No, I was holding him with two hands, and
I kind of just took him to the ground with
both my hands.

Speaker 2 (04:33):
Right, And what was everyone else doing when all this
was going down.

Speaker 4 (04:39):
I wasn't paying too much attaching to everyone else, obviously,
once I saw a knife from this guy's hands, But
there are a few people standing around watching, And once
I'd taken him to the ground, I asked someone that
was watching to call the police because I couldn't get
to my phone myself.

Speaker 2 (04:54):
Were you surprised, Like, what was your reaction? Were you surprised?
Were you shocked?

Speaker 1 (05:00):
I was, to be.

Speaker 4 (05:01):
Honest, when that situation occurred, I kind of just it
was interstinct that I took the guy on the ground.
But it's almost sadly not surprising to see that he
had a knife on him.

Speaker 3 (05:13):
And the reason that he had gone.

Speaker 4 (05:15):
To stab this or had stabbed the person is because
he was in a fistfight with him and couldn't get away.
So his response to being caught for stealing coop boxes
from a store and not being able to escape was
to pull a knife and stab them. But obviously he
made a decision when he left the house that morning
or wherever he left, to carry a knife on him,
And you only carry a knife as you're prepared to

(05:36):
use it exactly.

Speaker 2 (05:38):
You're a private investigator, which is and I suppose it
was a good thing. You were kind of right place,
right time. Did Do you think that we have a
bit of a problem here? I mean when I read
the news and you see what happens at the bus stops,
you see what happens at the train stations, and I
know they say crimes coming down, blah blah blah, but
we have a problem with young people who are increasingly violent.

Speaker 4 (06:00):
Read well, my position of the private investigat a real
biased because not myself personally, but a lot of my
team do deal with defense work, and we do see
a lot of it, this lower level type of crime,
not usually involving knives obviously, like shoplifting I do see
quite often when I'm out and about. Newmarket in particular

(06:21):
has been quite bad because all the shops are closed down.
But it doesn't seem to be getting any better at
all in my opinion.

Speaker 2 (06:27):
And what about the I understand the store that sold
the Pokemon cards, the hobby store. Hobby lords have reached
out to you, have they they have yes.

Speaker 4 (06:36):
So a post was got up on Facebook by the
owner of the store, and I was tagged in it,
and they've reached out and expressed their gratitude for my assistance.
But it's just something that I would do if I
was walking down the street and I saw it.

Speaker 2 (06:49):
Really Yeah, hey, Thomas, really appreciate your time and thank
you on behalf of the public. And I mean, I
can't speak on behalf of this person, but I'm sure
they'll be thanking you as well for getting involved.

Speaker 4 (07:01):
Yeah, definitely, Yeah, definitely. The I've got to give it
to the guy, the shopkeeper. He was, you know, giving
him a good run for his money. But when someone
brings a knife out, that really changes things, doesn't It
certainly does.

Speaker 2 (07:12):
That's Thomas James, who was there Secure Collections and Investigations,
who happened to be there and witness the whole thing
going down in New Market yesterday afternoon. It's fourteen minutes
after four News Talk ZB nine two nine two is
the number to text. We'd get to Darcy Sport.

Speaker 1 (07:27):
Next, it's the Heather dupiss Allen Drive Full Show podcast
on Iheard Radio powered by News Talk ZBB.

Speaker 2 (07:36):
Four sixteen News Talks z' be great to have your company.
I hope you're keeping safe and dry as you can
around the country. A lot of bad weather today and
we will catch up with the mayor. This is Coramandel
was being hard hit today. Catch up with them after
five o'clock. Sadly somebody that looks like may have lost
their life. This is in Walkworth, north of Auckland. After
trying to cross a ford. Rivers swollen and cargets washed down.

(07:59):
It was an un call. The nephew jumps out. Uncle
continues in the car down the swollen river. Can't find
the locate the vehicle or the driver at this point though.
They are trying, and you've got to hand it to
the rescue workers who are out there in white basically
doing whitewater rafting in the rafts. Twenty of them trying

(08:21):
to find this vehicle. So keep up the good work.
Hopefully they're able to get to a resolution. We'll keep
you up to date with that throughout the afternoon. Seventeen
after four sport.

Speaker 1 (08:29):
With the tab app download and get your bed on
R eighteen bit responsibly.

Speaker 2 (08:34):
Darcy is here, Hey, dars Hi.

Speaker 1 (08:36):
Ryan.

Speaker 2 (08:36):
Black Caps kick off their two twenty series against India tonight.

Speaker 5 (08:39):
All the games two thirty in the morning, hardly ideal
for us and least you're an insomniac or a cricket tragic.
It's five on the bounce up against India, who, of
course we just pushed to one side in the One
Day International. First time I've done that over there. So
it's been a good time of it over in India.
The macy still in fighting us back quite frankly after
what happened in A three is serious World Test Championship.

(09:01):
But look, this is ideal ahead of the T twenty
World Cup to learn about what it's like to play
TEA twenty cricket in India on the decks, in the conditions.
So this is invaluable as far as I've built up
as concerned. You can't say that this team is going
in undercooked. And by the looks of this side, if
we get Finn Allum over there after his fun and

(09:22):
games over in the Big Bash, it is a seriously
frightening top six batting wise, these guys can hit go
and wow hones. So five games to go and then
the big dance starts. So I for one am ridiculously
excited because well on sports broadcast, I can't help myself.

Speaker 2 (09:42):
Right your job. I know we're going to talk about
the ASP Classic, but I've been watching the tennis because
it's just been on in the corner of my eye
while I've been preparing over in Australia today. Guess they
put on a slick show there, don't they.

Speaker 5 (09:54):
They should. That's one of the majors and it's Australian
sport and Australians know how to c sport. The Americans
know her to cover sport as well. The Australians are
probably more along our lines because they've got that antip
dy and that that Oka out look, so we get
a bit mighty not as serious maybe as the American's serious.

Speaker 2 (10:15):
And that to the ASP Classic.

Speaker 5 (10:17):
Takes you hold on talking about that the Australian Open.
Did you see no Masuka and her.

Speaker 2 (10:23):
Did the jelly thing outfit?

Speaker 3 (10:26):
Interesting?

Speaker 2 (10:27):
Is it fashion? Is it tennis?

Speaker 6 (10:28):
What I do?

Speaker 5 (10:28):
So when you go to Wimbledon, you've got to wear white?
So she will? Will she turn up as a snowman
or a polar bit thing?

Speaker 7 (10:33):
Is?

Speaker 2 (10:34):
It's all very well and good to do that, but
you've got to win, don't you If you turn up
looking silly and then you lose.

Speaker 5 (10:39):
Do you think that was silly? Look, it's an opportunity
to be Are you judging her outfit knack?

Speaker 2 (10:45):
Well? I mean yea, yeah, fair enough. Hey how many
aperol splittss did they save? That the ASP Classic.

Speaker 5 (10:50):
Over twenty thousand? I don't even know what an aperol
spritzer is?

Speaker 2 (10:53):
Do you know the orange orange thing?

Speaker 5 (10:55):
Orange thing? Is it alcoholic?

Speaker 2 (10:57):
Yeah, it's alcoholic, not like get your smashed fall over.

Speaker 5 (11:00):
But no, obviously it's right along the lines of the
gen sling Singapore slang that those kind of fashionable drinks
like a what else would you have one? Some of
those ones that's there? I can't remember I drank beer. Yeah,
that's very At the ASP Classic.

Speaker 2 (11:17):
We're very successful. And they're getting the roof on in
a couple of years too.

Speaker 3 (11:20):
Yeah.

Speaker 5 (11:21):
No, it was a fantastic tournament always as all they
needs to do is grow more trees so there's more shade.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
Well, they're getting the roof right, The roof is good.

Speaker 5 (11:29):
The Robinson Standard was great being under the roof. Looking
forward to the to the new ASP Classic, but it's
a wonderful way to start off the twenty twenty sixth
sporting year and Nicholas A. Lamper and the crew. Congratulations
well none looking forward to the next edition coming up
in a year's time.

Speaker 2 (11:46):
Brilliant Darcy, thank you. Good to see you as away and.

Speaker 5 (11:48):
Coming up on tonight's program, we're going to be joined
by Lima Sooppewanga, who's going to give us the reasons
why Jamie Joseph should be the next All Black coach
twenty one.

Speaker 2 (11:56):
After four year on news Talks, you'd be dares to
be with you later. A couple of your texts, Ryan Crumbs,
you had me excited when you said the grocery commissioner
was going to be gone, but then my mood plummeted
when you describe the multiple people who will take the
place in wasting our tax payer money. I tend to agree.
Chris says the grocery commissioner was just a total waste
of money and a rip off to the New Zealand

(12:18):
tax payers. He should hang his head in shame. He
was weak. Well, I mean the thing is, what could
he actually do? The job was a have anyway, I
don't think really the job allowed him would have allowed
him to do anything serious. And at the end of
the day, it's up to the government anyway. It's a
pr job twenty one after four.

Speaker 1 (12:37):
For the name you trust to get the answers you need,
it's Ryan Bridge on either duplicy Ellen Drive with one
New Zealand coverage like no one else news talks. They'd
be well.

Speaker 2 (12:49):
Twenty four great to have your company. So the Prime
Minister's announced the election date. Surprise, surprise, it's the date.
In fact, the first date that was floated in the
very first media report on this last year was November seven,
and he's gone with that one. So November seven will
go to the polls pretty much as expected. Now that
means that the House will rise on September twenty four.

(13:09):
Parliament will be dissolved on October first, rip day October fourth.
Nominations will close October eighth. Advanced voting will begin October
twenty six. A couple of things will change this election
because you know, the government passed a whole bunch of
electoral law changes. So the enrollment that's closing thirteen days
before the election, so you cannot roll on enroll on

(13:31):
election day anymore. And what you can't do is provide
free food, drink or entertainment within one hundred meters of
a voting place. If you do that, the fine could
be ten thousand dollars. So don't. Now, let's go to anyway.
We'll talk to David Seymour about that after five thirty tonight.
Let's go to America, because you know how I told

(13:51):
you yesterday, I think the toll Trump and Greenland thing
will blow over. Like he's not going to go invade Greenland. Well,
he was asked today quite a good question by the BBC,
are you willing to oversee the end of NATO in
order to take Greenland? And I think his response is
quite telling, says it all. It's a negotiation tactic. Basically,

(14:12):
he's not willing to compromise on NATO. He starts by
giving himself credit quite rightly for fixing the funding problems
with NATO. First, have a listen.

Speaker 8 (14:21):
I think something's going to happen that's going to be
very good for everybody.

Speaker 5 (14:25):
Nobody's done more for NATO.

Speaker 7 (14:28):
Than I have.

Speaker 8 (14:28):
As I said before, in every way. Getting them to
go up to five percent of GDP was something that
nobody thought was well, and pay at two percent they
weren't paying. At five percent they are paying.

Speaker 2 (14:42):
And it's true that is true. So far, so true.
They were basically taking a free ride and not pulling
their own weight. Then he says very clearly what every
hawk in Washington will be telling him. America needs NATO
as much as Europe does.

Speaker 8 (15:00):
We will work something out when NATO is going to
be very happy and where we're going to be very happy.
But we need it for security purposes. We need it
for national security and even world security.

Speaker 2 (15:11):
Now we'll speak to our US correspondent, Dan Mitchison. He's
with us after News at four thirty. We'll get latest
on that. And actually a couple of pregnancy stories out
of the White House as well, not just Caroline Leavitt.
There's another pregnant woman in the White House. I'll tell
you who it is. Not Millennia, come down twenty seven

(15:33):
after four News Talks b.

Speaker 1 (15:37):
On your smart speaker, on the iHeart app and in
your car on your drive home. It's Ryan Bridge on
Hither Duplicy Ellen Drive with one New Zealand and the
power of satellite mobile News talks it being.

Speaker 2 (15:58):
Pretty far way from here on news Talalk Sai'd be
great to have your company this Wednesday afternoon. Now, Chris Hopkins,
he did a speech. They're out in west Auckland for
their party retreat or whatever it is, and did a
speech today. I did an interview, a couple of interviews
this morning, and I just thought not only uninspiring but

(16:20):
also verging on like cringey and credibility totally in the bin.
And it's already binde has been the rubbish has been collected.
He's at the tip okay on housing. He's having a
go at Chris Bishop and he's saying, Christopher Luxon is
throwing Chris Bishop under the bus on housing because you

(16:40):
know there's this little change coming. They're going to slightly
u turn on the intensification rules in Auckland that's been signaled.
We don't know what the changes are yet, but they
will come. So Hopkins comes out this morning and he says,
and he's asked, you know, well, what do you want
to happen to house prices? Do you want them to fall?
Because he says they're unaffordable, And he won't say he
wants them to fall, of course, because that's political suicide.

(17:02):
So he says, I want a stabilization in house prices,
giving New Zealanders a chance for their incomes to catch up,
he says, And this is where it gets a bit disgusting.
The current government aren't focused on growing people's incomes at all.
They're only focused on increasing the wealth of those at
the top, rather than the people who are working hard
every day and aspiring to own their own home. Now,

(17:23):
you know as well as I do, what happened to
house prices under the last government, don't you? And you
know as well as I do what happened to house
prices in the last two years. They've been falling. And
you also know that rents have been falling for the
first time in a very long time. Now is that
a good thing? We can argue until the cows come
home about that. But what you can't argue with is

(17:44):
the hypocrisy that was falling out of Chris Hipkins's mouth
this morning.

Speaker 1 (17:48):
It's the world wires on newstalks. The'd be drive.

Speaker 2 (17:52):
Twenty three away from five. Trump's leagud a bunch of
texts from European leaders trying to convince him not to
invade Greenland. Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney's had a bit
to say on Greenland at Davos, where all the rich
people are.

Speaker 9 (18:04):
Every day We're reminded that we live in an era
of great power rivalry, so the rules based order is fading.
So the strong can do what they can and the
week must suffer what they must.

Speaker 2 (18:19):
I don't know why, but Gavin Newsom's the California governor,
well other than he's trying to be the president. He
says more people need to stand up to Trump.

Speaker 1 (18:27):
And it's time to stand tall and firm.

Speaker 6 (18:29):
He wouldn't have a backbone to promise you with Donald Trump.

Speaker 2 (18:33):
He's a t rex.

Speaker 7 (18:35):
You meet with him or he devours you.

Speaker 2 (18:39):
That's the second time I've had to think about mating
with Donald Trump. In the last half hour. It's too
much shadow cabinet falling apart in Canberra. This is over
the hate speech laws we've been covering for the last
few days. The Liberal Party helped the government get the
new hate speech laws through the Senate, but the National
Party the senators there voted against them. Now Nationals Senator
Roscadale says he may lose his spot in the shadow

(19:00):
cabinet as punishment for voting against the Liberals. Have a
listen to what he had to say.

Speaker 10 (19:05):
I am willing to resign. I've prepared to resign. There
is a conversation taking place that is not at my level.
I understand if you do the crime, you have to
take the time, and if it is so requested, I
will be stepping down from okabin.

Speaker 11 (19:20):
Finally, this afternoon, I've got a game for you.

Speaker 7 (19:25):
Yuppy.

Speaker 12 (19:25):
Yeah, keep yuppy.

Speaker 13 (19:28):
Now.

Speaker 2 (19:28):
I didn't quite remember what this was, but I do
now that I've read the story. Keep you Uppy. Twelve
tech workers have set a new world record and keep uppy.
Between them, they've managed to keep twenty five balloons from
touching the ground for one minute. This is what we
did before smartphones just get balloons in the air. The
previous record for a twelve person team was twenty four balloons.

(19:50):
And I guess now we know what tech workers are
doing while we are waiting on hold for an hour
for them to answer and tell us to restart our computers.

Speaker 1 (19:57):
International Correspondence with He's an Eye Insurance Peace of mind
for New Zealand Business.

Speaker 2 (20:05):
Twenty one to five. It's got a Dan Mitchison now
US correspondent, Dan, Welcome to the show, Hi, Ryan. Now,
Trump gave a marathon press conference. I caught part of
it and including when that paper clip seemed to attack
him on stage.

Speaker 1 (20:21):
Yeah, it was.

Speaker 14 (20:22):
You would hate to be his press handler because you
schedule ten minutes and he goes on for two hours.
And this kind of amounted, I think, to the greatest
hit list of his administration's accomplishments.

Speaker 1 (20:33):
Today.

Speaker 14 (20:34):
I saw he was kind of zigging and zagging through
a number of topics during this press briefing. And it
happened on the anniversary of his inauguration and also a
day before he delivers a key address to billionaires at
the World Economic Forum in Switzerland, And that's going to
be interesting, Ryan, because you know, while he's there, he's
going to have a chance to confront the pushback that
he's getting from a lot of Neto allies over his

(20:55):
approach to Greenland and the tariffs that he says that
are going to be implemented.

Speaker 2 (21:00):
Then markets they were closed Monday, obviously because you guys
had your public holiday, but they're open now and after
the sort of escalation in the last twenty four hours,
they responded Tuesday afternoon local time.

Speaker 14 (21:14):
Well they did and had the worst day that we've
seen since last October. The Dow was down by nine
hundred points. The S ANDP was off about two percent.
The Nasdaq slid about two and a half percent. I'm
looking at futures right now. The market will open at
six thirty our time Pacific time tomorrow morning. But Dow, Nasdaq,
and the S and PR all up, which is good
news and what I think. I mean, there's a lot

(21:36):
of concern. There's a lot of unease about what's going
on right now with Greenland and and of course what
Trump may or may not say in Switzerland. But he
also doubled down on his efforts to impose this two
hundred percent tariffs on French wine Champagne after the President
of France reportedly snubbed a seat on his board of
peace on Gaza. So there are so many balls in

(21:57):
the air right now, it's kind of hard to keep
track of keep track of all of Ryan.

Speaker 2 (22:02):
What's your sense of it from where you're sitting. Do
you think this is posturing to do some kind of
deal over minerals? Do you think he's actually going to
take Greenland off the NATO country.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
I don't know.

Speaker 14 (22:16):
I mean, anybody that says they know what he's going
to do five minutes before he does it is just
taking a wild guess. I mean, he's repeatedly refused to
rule out military action to take over Greenland. Polls over
here in the US, the majority of Americans say they
don't support that. It's even being dismissed by some Republican lawmakers.
But you know, he does not go with the flow
of the crowd. And as we found out in the past,

(22:39):
he's his own person and he does what he wants
most of the time, and you know, the pulse and
his loyal followers seem to, you know, hold him to
it and seem to stay with him.

Speaker 2 (22:50):
What's the most beautiful airport in America?

Speaker 14 (22:52):
Dan Well, the most beautiful airport has been crowned in
San Francisco. It is the Terminal. This was a an
international architecture firm and they gave them a design award
and at San Francisco's international Airports, Harvey Milk Terminal one
which received the top honor. And they said, and the
Harvey Milk, for those that don't know, is a famous

(23:13):
gate rights leader that was gunned down, and it highlights
his political career and the impact on San Francisco that
it has. There On Reddit users are praising the terminal
for the art and how clean it is in the food,
and sort of connecting our two countries here. This is
kind of a key gateway too in the US if
you're coming over from New Zealand and that airport has
seen a seven percent increase in Kiwi tourists in the

(23:35):
last year. And I think an airport makes, you know,
a great first impression when you're arriving somewhere for a
holiday or even business. You know, San Francisco International certainly
does that.

Speaker 2 (23:44):
So it's not just so it's the art as the food,
but it's also the cleanliness.

Speaker 14 (23:49):
It's also the cleanliness, yeah, yes, which is I mean,
you know, if you've done some traveling around the world
and you've seen a few airports, you know there are
some that are better than others. San Francisco certainly is
at the top of its league.

Speaker 2 (23:59):
Massive important because especially for US, because we do a
lot of long haul being at the bottom of the world,
and once you get you know, you've been on a
plane for twelve hours. You don't want to step into filth,
you know, and then hang around in filth for three hours.
So it's very important Queen Airport.

Speaker 14 (24:13):
Well, it is, and that's why that to this day.
Dun Eden's airport is my favorite in the Southern Hemisphere.
And I'm not being sarcastic. I'm not hond not hurt.

Speaker 2 (24:21):
Really okay, good to know. I'm sure they'll be stoked. Dan,
thank you. Good to have you as on as always.
Dan Minson, our US correspondent. Seventeen minutes away from five
Ryan Bridge. We'll get to Azaria Hall next. Ryan. Please
ask Seymour why he is giving his tick to this
new grocery commissioner. Well, the change from a grocery commissioner

(24:43):
to a board plus one thousand committees for the ComCom
Very good questions, Stuart, and we will ask him. He's
on the show after five point thirty. We'll get to that. Oh,
he's Keith Ryan at a house party many moons ago.
We kept three. Well Keith next year. I can't read that.
I thought it was a nice one about It was

(25:04):
a nice one about the game where you keep the
balloons in the air. Keith, you were playing quite a
different game with quite a different type of balloon. Sixteen
to five.

Speaker 1 (25:13):
Politics with centric credit, check your customers and get payments certainty.

Speaker 2 (25:17):
Spurting to five Alclo no longer the most expensive place
in the country to buy a house. I'll tell you
where is after five right now, Azaria, how News talks.
They'd be senior political reporter with us. Azaria. Good afternoon,
Good afternoon.

Speaker 13 (25:27):
It's good to be with you.

Speaker 2 (25:28):
And we have an election date.

Speaker 13 (25:30):
We have an election date. The Prime Minister has announced
the twenty twenty sixth general election will be held on
November the seventh. Chris Luxen says setting the election date
early in the year sort of gives a bit more
certainty to New Zealanders. The government also intends for Parliament
to rise on the twenty fourth of September and then
Parliament to dissolve on October. The first advance voting will

(25:54):
start on the twenty sixth of October. That's in the
current plans. The PM's also spoken about this significant economic
turnaround plan that National is hoping really gets felt more
widely across the country this year. Another big aspect though,
of this election date, coalition talks. The Prime Minister has
reiterated he's confident that those talks would be able to
be sorted out by Christmas with that November seventh date.

(26:18):
Although lux And he says he is willing to work
with ACT in New Zealand first again, although he is
pushing for people to party vote. National Labor leader Chris
Hopkins responded to this. He said it's a relatively late election,
usually sort of October the time to do it. He's
claiming that this means that the Prime Minister wants to
hold on for as long as possible, also saying that

(26:39):
it could be a challenge to have those coalition talks
done before Christmas.

Speaker 2 (26:44):
Right now, what about Chris Sipkins. He's given his first
speech of the year to his caucus in West Auckland
today and I saw he gave a bit of a
serve to bishop and to Luxe and over the housing thing.
What else has he been saying?

Speaker 13 (26:57):
Yeah, the big deal here really the party wanting to
win back the super city flip some of those seats.
Hipkins really putting emphasis on how important that is, saying
that Labour wants to win back the biggest city and
that there will be a dedicated strategy around Auckland. So
it really does seem like having more of a focus
on this. Auckland has been a bit of a pressure
point for the party, especially last election. Another pressure point

(27:20):
though policy, which may continue to be a bit of
a worry over the year. Chris Hopkins is promising the
party will announce new policies going ahead.

Speaker 15 (27:28):
However, the fiscal plan, so how we will balance up
the government's books and any spending many major spending commitments
and so on, those things will come later in the year.

Speaker 13 (27:38):
So major decisions around spending seem like they may have
to come after the budget. That's something Labour's said in
the past. It does though bring about questions, notably do
they have enough time from budget day to election day
to really sell those policies to people.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
Now finally we've got a retirement announcement already, so Duncan
web from Labor had already said he was going, and
now Adrian Ruafi, the previous speaker, is out.

Speaker 13 (28:03):
Yeah, the former Speaker, Adrian uuda Fe has announced his
resignation from politics. He'll be standing down at White Honey
Day so quite soon, and he's wanting to do this.
It's been announced before the Adults in a Church movement
as well, essentially, so he doesn't go to that with
this kind of resignation looming over his head. He will
then be replaced by Georgie Danzy on the labor list.

(28:26):
Chris Hepkins also confirmed he's not expecting any more labor
resignations to announced, but he's confirmed a bit of a reshuffle.

Speaker 15 (28:33):
Good bit of a game of chess, you know, he
move a few pieces around. It always involves a few
subsequent changes from that.

Speaker 13 (28:37):
Well, on the other side of the house, the PM
did flag potential changes in the National Party earlier in
the week. He said there may well be a reshuffle
in the next month or two. We may well have
some retirements. There has been some speculation. It is just
chatter rumors at this point, nothing substantiated. However, former National
Party Minister Chris Finlayson has said, speaking to the podcast

(29:00):
Cross Party Lines, that there were rumors about whether or
not Judith Collins is going to call it a day.
Her press team, though, has emailed me a statement saying
Collins was confirmed as the National Party candidate for the
Papacuta electorate in October last year. I mean, you would
think it would be quite strange to select her in
a seat and then have to replace her. Here's what
Chris Bishop had to say about it all earlier today.

(29:22):
Not really wanting to get involved in this discussion.

Speaker 16 (29:25):
But if she is, there is a position for her
and Amma announcement for her to make it.

Speaker 1 (29:29):
It's not for me to make it.

Speaker 13 (29:30):
So a bit unclear there about Collins. Obviously it's an
if at this point, not a yes or a no.

Speaker 2 (29:35):
Interesting stuff is Zaria? Thank you for that. Zaria Howe
out of Parliament for US nine away from five right now.
I said that there was another pregnancy in the White House,
and I wasn't lying to you. So Caroline Levettho's the
Press secretary. She's pregnant, and you can, I mean you
can sort of you know, you see it, you know
when you turn on the TV and see the press conference. Also,

(29:56):
she has an amazing ability because when and I don't
to explain pregnancy to you, but you know, when women
are pregnant, like heavily pregnant, they sometimes have trouble with
their breathing, you know, like it's hard to breathe and
to speak a lot and to do long sentences. Caroline
Levitt does not have that problem. Have you noticed. It's

(30:16):
very impressive to watch my friend Donna is pregnant all
the time and I can't understand what she's saying. This
is every second thing. It word as a breath poor
thing anyway. So not only is Caroline Livitt pregnant, but
now Jade Vance has announced that he and his wife
Usha are well, she's pregnant. It's weird when people say
the guy is pregnant because he's not. But Usher, his

(30:38):
wife is pregnant. Is going to be their fourth child,
due in summer, and she will be the first vice
presidential spouse to be pregnant. So congratulations on that, very
great news. He's forty one, she's forty due in July.
And this is a guy, of course, who's worried about
the declining birth rate in America and is doing something

(31:01):
about it.

Speaker 1 (31:01):
Eight to five The headlines and the hard Questions. It's
the Mic Hosking Breakfast.

Speaker 17 (31:07):
Art has got thirty nine percent of us holding a
bachelor's degree or higher. Chris Whelan's the chief executive of
University's New Zealand.

Speaker 2 (31:13):
It's thirty nine percent a good number.

Speaker 18 (31:15):
Well, actually, no, we're actually lagging behind most other comparable countries.
Every country has gone to over the last thirty years,
an international trend of educating their population as their workforces
become much more knowledge worker basea wow.

Speaker 17 (31:28):
So is that a cultural thing? We just don't value
higher education the way other countries do.

Speaker 3 (31:33):
It's hard to tell.

Speaker 18 (31:34):
People are rational. They will follow where the jobs are,
and I think the New Dent economy hasn't developed perhaps
as quickly as some other economies have.

Speaker 17 (31:42):
Back tomorrow at six am the Mic Hosking Breakfast with
Mayley's Real Estate Newstalk ZB.

Speaker 2 (31:48):
Five to five on Newstalk Z be great to have
your company this afternoon. Will do weather after five o'clock.
We will also talk about the city that is now
more expensive than Auckland to buy a house. Cops spending
money on advertising. I don't necessarily have a problem with this,
but the Police Association does so. They've spent two point

(32:10):
seven million dollars last year on a big marketing campaign
to recruit new cops. They say it's money well spent.
But the Police Association president, who is Steve Watto's a
guy I actually rape. We having only interviewed him what
half a dozen times because he's not been in the
job long, but seems like he knows what he's doing.
He's not happy about it. We'll talk to him after

(32:30):
five as well, but I have to bring this to
your attention, some breaking news. This is Donald Trump's plane,
so you know he's He's throwing the cat amongst the pigeons,
as he likes to do with Greenland ahead of Davos,
over in Switzerland, jumps on Air Force one to get
over there. Everyone's at fever pitch waiting for his arrival,
and something's happened to his plane. It's had to turn around.

(32:54):
There's a mechanical problem. He's basically doing a one of
our Defense Force jobbies. Here is a C and N
reporter of moments ago about this.

Speaker 19 (33:02):
Air Force one did turn around moments ago. It is
on its way back to join Air Force Base Andrews.
And this is because of what they are calling a
small mechanical issue. They're saying that it is not serious,
but that they needed to return back and that President
Trump is still going to go to Davos, but he
will be taking a backup.

Speaker 2 (33:22):
Plane, AH Air Force two. You're on news talks. He'd
be where the.

Speaker 20 (33:27):
Next questions answers, Thanks analysis the drive show you trust
for the full picture.

Speaker 1 (33:43):
Brian Bridge on hither duplessy Ellen Drive News Talk. Sa'd
be good.

Speaker 2 (33:47):
Even seven half for five breaks ahead of your company,
A lot of weather around, a lot of rain around
four regions across the North Island under a precautionary state
of emergency. Fitz Janga, Carmandel clatter off closed off, dozens
of household and ten have been evacuated already. Peter Rebel
is the Thames Coramandal District mayor with me tonight, Peter,
Good evening, Good evening. How are you holding up there

(34:09):
in Thames Corrimandel.

Speaker 6 (34:11):
Oh, well, we're actually holding up well, but we are
experiencing a huge volume of rain for sure. It's we
had almost record levels I think of rain overnight which
really severely impacted the east coast of our peninsula. So

(34:31):
fidy Yanger got cut off quite early in the morning
with flooding over roads and what have you. Continues to
be cut off, but we are expecting the worst of
this to come in the next four or five hours.
Met Service are telling us there's going to be significant
volumes of rain in the next four or five hours,
so that will certainly load up the rivers and threaten

(34:56):
slipper slips on roads and what have you.

Speaker 2 (34:59):
What's your beg worry? Is it the roads and are
people heading your warnings or are they sort of red
alerted out.

Speaker 6 (35:07):
Look people, people are hitting the heating wardings. You know,
we are. It's not uncommon for us to have in
Cleingland weather at certain times and the most residents kind
of know what that means, and so that's don't travel
unless you need to. But of course we're, you know,
one of the country's premiere holiday destination, so we've got

(35:28):
a lot of visitors, a lot of holidaymakers here who
may not be quite so used to having rain like
what we're having. So we're making sure we get the messages,
don't you know, if you're on vulnerable ground, get to
high ground, you know, don't drive as you don't need
to drive. For many people they won't be able to
because the road is I think we've got eleven roads

(35:49):
that are closed and that pretty much cuffs off many
of the communities on the east coast, you know, Fittying
Cook's beaches cut off and who he has cut off
because the roads are flooded.

Speaker 2 (36:02):
All right, Peter, take care tonight, Peter Revel Thames Corimandal
District Mayor. It is nine after five Ryan Bridch move
over Auckland Bay have plenty officially the most expensive place
in the country to buy a house. Today, new trade
Mean data shows Bay Plenty has the highest average asking
price in the country nine hundred and sixty three thousand dollars.
That's eleven k more than Auckland. Auckland, by the way,

(36:23):
has had that title for basically a decade. Ed mckknight's
resident economist at Oprah's Partners, joins me tonight, ed, good evening.

Speaker 21 (36:31):
Great to be here, Ryan.

Speaker 2 (36:32):
So is this Bay of Plenty getting more expensive or
is this Auckland price is still dropping or both?

Speaker 21 (36:38):
Well, there's a couple of things going on. First of all,
we've got to be clear that we aren't talking about
asking prices here, and of course you can ask however
much you want for your house. It doesn't mean you're
necessarily going to get it. But what we are seeing
at the moment is, right now there are quite a
lot of reasonably expensive properties for sale over there in
the Bay of Plenty. Up here in Auckland, we are

(36:59):
seeing quite a few cheaper properties for sale. We have
had our townhouse boom, and so because Auckland's property prices
have been very expensive in the past, the market has responded.
We've now got some cheaper properties on the market. That's
why you see that difference in asking price. What I
will just say before people get their hopes up too much,
there is still quite a large difference between Auckland and

(37:19):
the Bay of Plenty when it comes to sale prices.
That gap has narrowed over the last ten years, but
the median sale price of a house in Auckland is
still about one hundred and fifty grand more than over
in the Bay of Plenty.

Speaker 2 (37:31):
So the vendors and bayo Plenty just greedy. Not necessarily.

Speaker 21 (37:36):
It might be that it just so happens that right
now and you see this sometimes it just so happens
that there are larger houses for sale at the moment,
whereas you might have smaller ones over here in Auckland,
and you do need to pay attention or just be
a bit careful with asking prices. For instance, over the
last twelve months in Gisbon, the average asking price is
down thirty four percent year on year. Now does that

(38:00):
mean that Gisbon house prices have fallen off a cliff
and everybody's house is worth a third less? No, it
just happens that the makeup of houses has changed. The
houses that sold twelve months ago aren't the same as
the houses that are selling this year. It just so
happens thus smaller or cheaper.

Speaker 2 (38:16):
Also, on trade me and other sites like it, they
don't necessarily list and asking price, do they, So it's
it only will presumably would only take into account those
that give one oh no.

Speaker 21 (38:26):
What happens in the back end when a real estate
agent goes in and pops that property online is they
will put an indication of the price they are seeking,
because even if the property goes up for sale at
auction or deadline sale, people still need to be able
to filter and say, okay, I'm looking for a property
between six and seven hundred thousand dollars. And even if

(38:48):
the listing pops up and says auction, the real estate
agent still had to say, this is the ballpark what
they're aiming for.

Speaker 2 (38:56):
Right, So they would give an actual number, a ballpark number,
or just range.

Speaker 21 (39:01):
Yeah, that's right. And you might remember about a year
or so ago, there was a website that popped up.
A couple of young kids who put one live that
managed to pull out from trade me what the real
estate agent had actually put into the website somehow they'd
got into the back end and looked at the code
or something along those lines, and they got shut down
pretty quickly because real estate agents weren't happy about that.

Speaker 2 (39:21):
No, they don't like us knowing the truth to Ed.
Thank you Ed McKnight Resident Economists. That Open's partners. It's
twelve minutes.

Speaker 1 (39:27):
After five, Ryan Bridge.

Speaker 2 (39:29):
You know we'd a couple of years ago, well, a
couple of elections ago, I should say, there was the
story about the sewerage coming, rural sewage coming out of
some pipes at the hospital. I think it was Middlemore
Hospital in Auckland. Well, I can do you one bet. Well,
it's probably no better. Actually, they're probably both just as
disgusting as each other. But over in Australia and we
look at Australia and we go, wow, they can pay

(39:50):
so much more for their doctors and nurses and teachers
and their facilities and their motorways and everything's perfect over there. Well,
not so perfect, not so perfect, because today the story
out of Australia is a hospital patients in bed. Imagine
you just had your tonsils out, whatever maggots falling from
the ceiling while you're on your deathbed. The infestations force

(40:11):
the closure of wards and the cancelation of surgeries. A
likely cause, apparently is mold in the air conditioning system.
Flies are attracted. I hope you're not eating dinner yet.
Nuts too early. Flies attracted to the decaying organic matter
lay their eggs in the mold, from which the maggots hatch.
Hospital bosses say they're working to ensure it returns to

(40:32):
normal as soon as possible. Yeack five point thirteen News
Talks B. We'll talk next to the Police Association about
the massive amounts of money two point seven million bucks
that they spent last year the police. This is on
a marketing campaign. Is it working? Staying connected isn't just convenient,
it's critical, it's crucial. With one New Zealand satellite, you

(40:56):
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(41:16):
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wherever their work might take them. So the only place

(41:39):
to get this world first satellite mobile connectivity is with
one New Zealand Jump online, visit one end z slash
Satellite or visit them in store to learn more. Frame
breage on News Talk ZB it's seventeen minutes after five.
So Chippy's been at the Labor Party resort retreat at
a resort in west Auckland if they have one, and

(42:00):
he's done a speech to his caucus and he's also
spoken to the media. This is off the back of
the election date being announced. By the way, if you're
just joining us in November seven, we've got the date,
the one everyone thought it would be. So he's come
out and said he was asked a bunch of questions,
you know, who are you going to put in which
positions he's ruled out. You will be pleased to hear

(42:21):
some of you. Some of you may be disappointed ruled out.
Co Leader of the Greens Choe Swarbrick getting Finance minister
if he wins the election.

Speaker 15 (42:31):
I've already made it very very clear and a government
led by Labor. The Prime ministership will be held by
me and the Minister of Finance will be Barbara Edmonds
and those are non negotiable.

Speaker 2 (42:40):
Now just as important, he's also announced as wedding day.

Speaker 15 (42:42):
We did say last year WORL would wait till the
election day and that a wedding date was likely to
be sometime in twenty twenty seven.

Speaker 2 (42:49):
Now I have some things, some thoughts to share with
you about that. I'll do it at five twenty five.
It's eighteen after Brian Bridge. There's got to the police.
They've been spinning up larger on marketing. In the twelve
months since the Commissioner, Richard Chambers took office, two point
seven six million dollars was spent on a big recruitment
marketing campaign. That is double the previous year. Commissioner says

(43:11):
it's money well spent. There were seven hundred and eighty
eight graduates from Police College last year, and attrition fell
to four point nine percent. Steve, what is the Police
Association president? He's with me now, Steve good Evening, got
a right money well spent? You agree with the commissioner?

Speaker 12 (43:28):
No, not particularly. Look, any organization has to spend a
bit of money in order to make themselves attractive. But
when we're still struggling to get the five hundred officer target,
you'd have to wonder if that was money well spent.

Speaker 2 (43:44):
I mean it would take a while, wouldn't it for
those applications to be put in, for them to be reviewed,
and then to actually get bums on seats.

Speaker 12 (43:53):
Look, there is that that time that it takes in
order to get that done. All we've got to remember, though,
is that they are getting a flurry of applications. But
out of those applications, actually only six percent make it
through to Police College. So although they're getting probably a
lot more applications through the door, in reality, those that

(44:15):
are getting into college are a lot less.

Speaker 2 (44:18):
You've got to get the word out done, you, I mean,
we want more cops. How to how are people to know?
I mean, you're right, only six percent, But if it's
six percent of five hundred people versus six percent of
one thousand. You're better to have more applicants, don't you.

Speaker 18 (44:30):
Oh, I get it.

Speaker 12 (44:31):
You do need to spend money in order to get
people through the door. That's an absolute no brainer in
any organization needs to do that, and the police is
certainly no different. What you've got to ask yourself the
question is is this been.

Speaker 2 (44:45):
Being for buck and you don't think it is?

Speaker 19 (44:49):
Not?

Speaker 3 (44:49):
Overly?

Speaker 12 (44:49):
I think you know, when we've got a number of
stations that require new roofs, resourcing that's required out there
on the front line resource sing for the police employees,
maybe we could have spent that money, or please could
have spent that money a little bit differently and still
got really good results through a recruitment campaign with maybe

(45:13):
a few less funds.

Speaker 2 (45:14):
Steve, appreciate your time, Steve want Police Association President. Twenty
one minutes after five news Talks MB So we've got
the election date. Who's going to win it? That's next?

Speaker 1 (45:23):
Cutting through the noise to get the facts. It's Ryan
Bridge on hither duplusy Ellen Drive with one New Zealand
coverage like no one else's news talks.

Speaker 2 (45:32):
That'd be five four, So we've got a date. It's
the date the pundits have been picking since late last year,
November seventh, for the election. This election, in my view,
is Nationals to lose. The only question really is how
much influence ACT and or New Zealand First will have
on any future government. Don't get me wrong, it's going
to be a close race. Here's some easy picks for you.

(45:54):
National will get more votes than Labor. New Zealand First
will outperform ACT. New Zealand First will steal from Labor
and nip at their heels to Party. Marty's reputation, as
you know, is already pretty much in the bin, so
the Marlori seats are anyone's guests at this point. Winston Peters,
as always, will decide who actually wins the election. He's

(46:16):
ruled out working with Chippy, but not Labor. Here's the
crucial point, though Winston Peters cannot politically enter a deal
propped up by or supported by the Greens or to
Party Mardi. It would be political suicide in pretty much
every pole this term, Labor has needed both of them
to get close to the magic sixty one seats. Now,

(46:38):
you could argue that National might stumble and Labour could surge.
The chances of this happening, I would say, are probably
around twenty percent at this point, very unlikely. The economic
recovery is underway, Summer will be around the corner come November.
But most importantly, people won't switch horses mid stream when
that recovery has been so hard for the memory, particularly

(47:02):
in Auckland, is too short for voters to forget Labour's
COVID mess and unbridled spending on outrageous and expensive things.
Remember the seven hundred and fifty million dollar bridge going
across the Waita Maita harbor that wouldn't carry a single car,
the bike bridge. Come on, our memories aren't that short.

(47:24):
Chris Hopkins today has also announced a date his wedding.
He says it'll be held in twenty twenty seven, and
I fear Tony that means you are likely to marry
an unemployed bloke from the Hut Crying Bridge. You're on
new TALKSB twenty six minutes after five. Ryan Labor is
prioritizing Auckland. This is what Chippy's told us today. So

(47:44):
why did they select Michael Wood? Hardly a new dynamic
candidate says Grant. Yeah, but he's the Unions like him.
I actually saw Michael Wood up north. I was in
Northern doing a roadie for summer and he was up
there with his family. I didn't get close enough to
stop and say hello. We're sort of passing in the
car Cape Cape r Danger. We were right at the

(48:05):
top and he was in his Union car with the
logo on the side, on holiday with his family. I thought, no,
I wonder if the Union. I'm sure I'm assuming the
Union would know about that. But what are the rules
when you've got a company car? I see, I've never
had ones. I don't know, but maybe you're allowed to
do it, hopefully paying for his own petrol over the full,

(48:29):
all those subs from the fine workers of it too.
You're on news talks, he'd be lots of more to
talk politics. We've got Jack Tame and Fellow Riley on
the huddle coming your way after news back in a.

Speaker 1 (48:43):
Sex Hard Questions Strong opinion Ryan Bridge on hither du

(49:06):
for Sellen Drive with One New Zealand and the power
of satellite mobile news souks, it'd be to me.

Speaker 22 (49:17):
Can be running seas, get them running.

Speaker 2 (49:27):
Our well get to the huddle in a few seconds time.
Donald Trump says, there's no going back on Greenland. This
is he heads to Davos. The irony is, of course,
that his plane is turning back because there's a mechanical fault.
So he's going back to the States from whence he
came and then the problem will be fixed. Well, actually no,

(49:48):
he's going to jump on another plane. And as many
of you have pointed out, whatever plane Trump gets on
becomes air Force one, so he won't be on the
Air Force one, but he will be on our air
Force one, and it'll be the Air Force one once
he's on it. So that you go twenty five minutes
away from six. Lots of texts come in about We
spoke earlier about this hospital on across the Tasman where

(50:12):
maggots were falling out of the roof on two patients
who were recovering. Ryan I worked at the north Shore
Hospital for twenty years, says Cheryl. The air conditioning was
very seldom cleaned out, but when it was you should
have seen the crap that came out of it. It
was absolutely disgusting, Cheryl, I'll take your word for it.
I mean, what do you do wear a mask, not breathe,
you know, Ryan our Son. This is on police and recruitment.

(50:35):
They've spent double last year what they did the year
previous on advertising their recruitment campaign because they want more cops.
Ryan our Son has made three attempts to join the police,
each time falling short after the ride along but passing
the other components. No feedback ever given, just a stock
standard flyway comment with the assessment being undertaken by new cops.

(50:57):
I didn't realize this was part of the assessment. Apparently
they do a ride along in the car and that
this person reckons there's some was assessed by someone who'd
been on the beat for a month and they give
the Yale name. No wonder there's such a small number
who actually finally get through twenty three.

Speaker 1 (51:15):
To two six, Ryan Bridge, Well, we.

Speaker 2 (51:18):
Now have an official election date. It'll be November seventh,
and with the official vote counting taking up four weeks,
we might be getting coalition negotiations for Christmas. David Seymour
is leader of the ACT Party and joins me now, David,
welcome back. Good to have you here for a new year.

Speaker 7 (51:33):
Well, likewise, right, it's spice to hear your boys.

Speaker 2 (51:36):
So do you reckon we have a government? Buy it
before Christmas?

Speaker 14 (51:41):
Well?

Speaker 3 (51:41):
I hope so.

Speaker 7 (51:41):
And there's no reason why not.

Speaker 11 (51:43):
A lot of people are frustrated about the time taken
to count the vote. I have to say, I think
that you take as long as it takes, so long
as we've got an election that has cast iron and
people can be certain that the voting has been done
freely and fairly. We had some problems with that last election,
and I actually think that's a much bigger problem than

(52:04):
has been given attention to.

Speaker 7 (52:06):
So let them count the vote.

Speaker 11 (52:07):
And then it's really a matter of well, what of
the people of New Zealand decided? And once we know
that what cards each party has, then we can make
a decision. I can certainly tell you that a fact
is in a position to form a government. First of all,
a lot of people I've been talking to over summer
won't have to leave the country as they've threatened.

Speaker 7 (52:29):
But second of all, I see no.

Speaker 11 (52:31):
Reason why we wouldn't get it done in a couple
of weeks, having had that whole vote count time leading
up to it to prepare.

Speaker 2 (52:37):
PM told you yesterday about the date November seventh sensible.

Speaker 7 (52:42):
Yeah, look, I think one of the things that will do.

Speaker 11 (52:45):
And I'm not saying this is why Chris chose the date,
but we've had a long, hard slog as a country.
I would trace it back as far as twenty nineteen
as when stuff started getting a bit difficult and it
didn't improve through COVID, and we've had the recession and you.

Speaker 7 (53:02):
Know the rest.

Speaker 11 (53:03):
We've done a lot of work and a lot of
people have made a lot of sacrifices to get to
the stage where a recovery is actually underway. And I
think it's only fear that people get to judge the
government on the benefits of its policies delivered before they choose.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
How was your trip to Argentina.

Speaker 7 (53:24):
It was fantastic.

Speaker 11 (53:26):
You know, basically take off about two weeks a year
and I try and go somewhere else because I love
when people come up to me and tell me what
they're thinking. But sometimes just for a couple of weeks
go somewhere where.

Speaker 7 (53:40):
No one's going to do.

Speaker 11 (53:41):
That is a nice change, especially for my partner, and
we had a great time as a great country of
really friendly people and a lot of stuff just works
really well.

Speaker 7 (53:49):
There.

Speaker 2 (53:51):
Yeah, what do you make of the reforms? Are they working.

Speaker 1 (53:55):
Well?

Speaker 11 (53:55):
All the evidence we have is that they have half
the number of government departments, They've cut government spending thirty percent,
They've removed a huge amount of red tape and regulation.
Poverties come down, economic growth is up. They're balancing their
budget for the first time in a generation. So yeah,
they're doing the kinds of things that I would generally

(54:18):
advocate have the government focused on doing fewer things and
doing them well and then let the magic of entrepreneurship
and business and hard work out in the rest of
the community grow the economy.

Speaker 2 (54:31):
This U turn and Chris Bishop and the housing intensification
in Auckland, has anything actually been through cabinet yet?

Speaker 11 (54:38):
Well, if it had, it would be up to the
responsible minister and I wouldn't give that away to announce it.
But at this point Cabinet hasn't actually sat this yet. Yeah,
so it'll sit next week for the first time.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
So we're not actually sure what we're talking about yet.
Do you know what they're talking about, what the U
turn is?

Speaker 11 (54:58):
Well, I'm just being as interviewed by the Herald and
they preded it this morning. I'm being respectful of my
various colleagues, most of them are called Chris and letting
them work through their process. But I think what is
clear is that what Auckland needs is faster consenting, faster
infrastructure connections, more homes getting built. What we don't need

(55:22):
is what we've had for five years, which is Wellington
basically imposing plan changes on us, because we've been doing
that since the end of twenty twenty one when Labor
and National had this stitch up. Then we push that
back and now we've had another plan that again Auckland
is aren't too happy about. And the tragedy of it
all is that idly we do need to get more

(55:43):
homes built. If the next generation don't see a pathway
to property ownership, they'll either leave or vote for people
who militate against our community. And I think it's critical
that we actually get more home spelt. But this Wellington
meddling hasn't got us yet, hasn't actually got my homes belt.

Speaker 7 (55:59):
It's just meant lots of pink long back and forth.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
David, are you across the changes proposed changes to the
ComCom getting rid of the role of grocery Commissioner hooray,
waste of time, wasted money. But the number of roles
that look like they'll be created seems to me from
an outsider perspective, to be absurd.

Speaker 11 (56:17):
Well as I understand it, and this is outside my area,
but first of all, I campaigned against the Grocery Commission.

Speaker 7 (56:23):
I always thought it was a bit of a joke.

Speaker 11 (56:25):
I always had a picture on my own mind if
the four square guy with the apron and the pencil
running around harassing people hasn't actually got grocery prices down,
by the way, So appointing another person in government isn't
always the solution. But as I understand the reforms, and
again it's not my era, it's got Simson's responsible for this,
But what they're trying to do is put in place

(56:47):
a proper board of governors who hold the management accountable
for getting results in that organization. Now, a lot they've
had today is sort of a halfway house between the two.
So you have these commissioners who are half governors, half managers,
and it's not really clear who's holding who accountable for what.
So if you look at something like Sapharmac, we've got

(57:07):
a really great board. We've got a great CEO after
some changes we've made and it's going really, really nicely.
We've got a great announcement for but we're coming tomorrow.
Structure there trying to put on.

Speaker 2 (57:18):
But what they're talking about is a board. Okay, fine,
but plus a panel of up to twelve plus committees
on specific areas.

Speaker 11 (57:27):
Yeah, and I can understand people will say, why are
you creating more buiocracy? All I would say is that
sometimes it actually makes sense to have a good split
between governance and management. Whenever people and governance aren't full time,
they basically show up periodically and say, right, guys, what
have you achieved since we last met? And that can

(57:48):
be helpful because if people are holding themselves accountable, sometimes
things go skew with Second of all, it is true
that they have to check if areas are competitive and
often quite technically different. So you know, I'm just actually
sitting in traffic like most of Auckland right now, I've
got a cement truck in front of me. The economics
of cement making, if you ever have trouble getting to sleep,

(58:12):
is a fascinating thing to read about, and if you
want to regulate it then it's actually quite difficult to
regulate as a competition agency. I happen to know this
because I got involved in a case of a while
back in this area.

Speaker 7 (58:26):
So you know, if I haven't bored you out of.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
It, you have yet right out.

Speaker 11 (58:33):
Yeah, yeah, But I make the point that you know
there is there is a case to have some some
specialist people so that they actually know what they're talking
about and don't just go and willy nilly and make
pas confident.

Speaker 2 (58:44):
In David appreciate it. David Simola ak Party leader with
us from traffic in Auckland, sixteen away from six the
Huddle with.

Speaker 1 (58:51):
New Zealand Southaby's International Realty A name you can trust
locally and globally.

Speaker 2 (58:56):
It'll wake us up. Jack Tame, host of Saturday Mornings
and Q and H.

Speaker 23 (59:00):
Good evening, Good evening, Ryan, you should have tack with
the Argentina question.

Speaker 3 (59:04):
Honestly, I want to know more about it.

Speaker 2 (59:06):
I know, I know, very cold and he got to
meet him and he went to his office and all
that stuff. Hey, fellow, ridings with us as well. I'm
do partners feel good evening?

Speaker 3 (59:16):
Here you go, mate, and and I've had a few
decent sized stakes in Argentina. They are just the best
steaks outside of New Zealand. Of course I'm a very
low man, but the stakes in Argentina you have hi
about mid and eight, just the nature of the beast,
but fantastic place Argentina. I agree with David on that's
a great spot.

Speaker 2 (59:30):
Yeah, beautiful. Right, let's talk about that. So we've got
an election date. Either of you raise your hand, we
will say your name. Willing to take a punt on
the outcome.

Speaker 3 (59:42):
Yeah, there we go. The two things that you've got
to worry about with election, if you're the government or
the opporitionital one is is the economic recovery that's currently
going on going to be widely felt by New Zealanders
right by November. And that's what Seymour was just talking
about a minute ago. He put it more nicely than that,
but he's really saying government wants some time to see
that the government recovery is going to go on. The

(01:00:04):
second thing is does the government get to own it?
Does the government get to say to New Zealand as well,
we help that, we help that come and as a
result you should vote for us. It's not the other mob,
because I'll up your taxes or whatever the lines they
use and where that's where you've got to make a guess.
Now I'm going to make a view. We're sitty taking
this view in our business. It's most likely that that
does actually occurring, that the government's re elected in some fortum.

(01:00:24):
But g it's a close run thing. And bear in mind,
even if the government is re elected, it won't be
the same government. Even if the Luxlon is the prime
minister in November, it will be a different form of government.
There will be a different mix of the of the party.
So I think I think at this moment it's a
clos run thing, but it's most likely. I think the
government gets re elected, but GEO could easily come up
with another proposition just the opposite Jack.

Speaker 23 (01:00:44):
I think, as it stands today, Ryan, I think it's likelier,
much likelier, that some version of the current government or
something adjacent to the current government is returned. I don't
know if I put a number on it, but I
think that's much more likely than a labor leaed government
being in government.

Speaker 7 (01:01:01):
Next. I think there are.

Speaker 23 (01:01:02):
Two big risks I think about when I think about
the current government. Christopher Luxen and Crissipkens the opposition. On
the opposition side, I think by the timing of the
economic recovery, there is a risk that seven or eight
months from now they are going to be arguing to
New Zealanders about how bad the economy has been rather

(01:01:24):
than what people are actually experiencing, and that if you're
trying to say, hey, stuff's really really bad and people
are actually feeling a little bit of optimism in the
economy for the first time in a couple of years,
that's a very tricky place to.

Speaker 6 (01:01:34):
Be as an opposition.

Speaker 23 (01:01:36):
And I think on the government side of things, a
black Swan event like is it totally incomprehensible that we
could see the US move against Greenland, that we could
see action in the taiwanstrate or something like that over
the next nine months, That might once again put a
massive spanner in the works of the global economy, which
I think would play against the current government.

Speaker 2 (01:01:56):
Risk because I was thinking about that this morning, Jack,
do you think that would play against the government or
do you think, as was the case in Australia with
the terrorists, actually it could play to the favor of
let's stick with the you know, the devil we know.

Speaker 23 (01:02:08):
Yeah, honestly, I don't know. I mean, I don't know
that Christopher Luxen has necessarily connected with people in a
way that he would have hoped he has over you know.

Speaker 7 (01:02:18):
Over the last couple of years.

Speaker 23 (01:02:20):
Would that mean that people turfed out the current government
and appointed labor and a glimb of in a moment
of you know, topsy turviness international I don't know. It
also depends on where the Americans actually are, Like, would
we be positioned against the Americans in a black spot?

Speaker 7 (01:02:35):
It's one event.

Speaker 23 (01:02:36):
Who knows, honestly, it's just like putting.

Speaker 7 (01:02:37):
Your finger in the air and guessing.

Speaker 3 (01:02:38):
But that the US midterms take place. The US midterm elections,
which could lose Trump quite a lot of power on
the US take place November the third, four days before
the election, so there's going to be a lot of
hoop plower around that, a lot of instability. Clearly in
the US domestic political seen the most consequential election of
the year by far. That So to Jack's point, I
agree with them that these risks are a risk for

(01:03:00):
the government just as much as they are for the opposition.

Speaker 2 (01:03:01):
Yeah, which means vote on election day, don't go early,
because you need all the information you can get. Fellow Riley,
Jack Tame on the Huddle, back in the teck.

Speaker 1 (01:03:09):
The Huddle with New Zealand Southeby's International Realty, the only
truly global brand.

Speaker 2 (01:03:15):
Nine to six, Jack tam and Fellow Riley on the
Huddle tonight, guys, Jack will start with you. On the
social media ban under sixteens. There's this poll from the
Post that says sixty five percent would support it. What
do you reckon?

Speaker 23 (01:03:27):
I'm honestly surprised it's not higher Asian womens of the poll.
I was like, oh, well, we're under sixteen allowed to
vote on this as well.

Speaker 7 (01:03:36):
I reckon.

Speaker 23 (01:03:37):
I reckon in a couple of years that this is
this is going to be the norm among countries that.

Speaker 18 (01:03:43):
We usually compare ourselves with.

Speaker 23 (01:03:44):
I reckon, like a lot of OCD countries are not
OECD as opposed to OPD. I think we're going to
follow this pass, not including the United States for obvious reasons,
but I think unless as a real catastrophe Australia, this
is going to become the kind of mainstream policy of

(01:04:04):
a lot of centrist parties around the world.

Speaker 2 (01:04:06):
Yeah, hard to argue with that fell.

Speaker 3 (01:04:09):
Yeah, I think and I agree with that. And what
was interesting about that survey result was that the majority
of eighteen year olds thought that was a good idea
interesting a. So even those who were very close to
being part of the band, even a majority of them
said it's a good idea to do this. And Jack Swright,
I think what's happening in Australia. It's imperfect. I see
something like four million accounts have been closed down and

(01:04:29):
some of the complaints are well, the kids had to
stop on Whatsapple, one of those message ops that's not
yet been banned for them. And so the point is
that yes, it's imperfect, and yes to be your sorts
of workarounds and people screwing the scrum if you like,
and getting online with different personas it's on, And that
goes back to parental responsibility. Those parents should really be
helping this because there's no question that the evidence is

(01:04:51):
in on this. Social media is harmful to those to
young people in many many not all, but in many,
many circumstances. And I agree with Jack. I think the
Australians it's perfect. Though it is I think we'll be
copied and has been copied. You're hearing it being talked
about in the UK and elsewhere, so I think the
government will announce it and I think it'll be very
popular amongst their potential voters.

Speaker 2 (01:05:10):
It's one of those things where people know it's bad
for them, but they can't stop it, and they almost
want someone else to tell them that they can't. You know,
there is there is like a.

Speaker 7 (01:05:23):
Stuff there.

Speaker 6 (01:05:24):
There are some free speech.

Speaker 7 (01:05:26):
You know, concerns and some personal liberty concerns.

Speaker 23 (01:05:29):
I'm sure if you asked David Seymour he would take
a very different position to a lot of other people
about the band. But I mean that's the good thing
about having Australia right. We can we can watch very
closely how things go over the next six months or so.
It might be you know, a little early for really
detailed data as the overall effects on kids, but we've
got a perfect test case just over the day.

Speaker 2 (01:05:51):
Jack tame Phillo Riley on the Huddle News Talk said,
be six to six.

Speaker 1 (01:05:56):
It's the Heather Duple See Alan Drive Full Show podcast
d Radio powered by News talksb.

Speaker 2 (01:06:04):
Us Talks MB. It is four minutes away from six.
Ryan on the Grocery Commissioner. David Seymour has just completely
destroyed his credibility on wanting fewer public servants. I have
to say I tend to agree with that. What was
up with that weird, long winded answer, Ryan, I'm an
act voter. That would be Seymour's most boring interview. Is
he still on holiday? Says Grunt. He could have talked

(01:06:26):
up Malay type reforms, but he talked concrete mixes. David,
pull your finger out, says Grant. So I'm brutal but
honest feedback. I'm sure David Sema would appreciate it. Coming
up to six when we come back. Martin Snedden, former
New Zealand cricket boss, what's up with all the vacancys
for our top sporting codes across the country? By the way,

(01:06:48):
Tolliger Bay, East Coast Civil Defense there says you are
now under an evacuation noticed near the Heckawai River as
the bad weather continues across the country.

Speaker 1 (01:07:02):
Keeping track of where the money is flowing for the
business hour with Bryan Bridge and Mass Insurance and Investments.
Your future spent good hands New storgsby.

Speaker 2 (01:07:12):
Seven after sixth Great to have your company on the
business Our big drops on Wall Street. We'll get a
market update with Jeremy Hutton from Milford shortly Showba's coming
your way. Gavin Graham the UK a report on homeowners
trying to pick the ocr trough First. Our three biggest
sporting bodies right now are leaderless. Is there a problem
with sports executives running out of puff? Rugby? Netball, cricket?

(01:07:36):
Mark Robinson, Jenny Wiley, Scott wien Ink all finished last
year and they each had their own reasons. They each
had their own scandals in a way, But is the
job of a sports boss becoming too much? Former Chief
executive of New Zealand Cricket Martin steads with me now Martin.

Speaker 1 (01:07:50):
Good evening evening, Ryan.

Speaker 2 (01:07:52):
Do you think the job's harder now than it has
been in the past.

Speaker 24 (01:07:56):
It's always been hard, but it's very visible now with
the increasing social media coverage and the ability of people
to get in their keyboard warriors and comment. From that
point of view, it is, but it's that these are
very difficult jobs. You know, sport is volatile stakeholders. The

(01:08:18):
expectations sometimes board expectations are disproportionate to what the resources
are of an organization and burnout. I think burnout is
a huge issue. So I have great empathy and a
lot of sympathy for the people that have found themselves

(01:08:39):
in the position that those three chief executives and others
have found themselves in the last few months.

Speaker 2 (01:08:46):
You mentioned social media, which is interesting because a lot
of people say it's media, you know, your media commentators,
you know, mugs like me on the radio saying this
person that person. You know. But social media now has
changed the game, hasn't it.

Speaker 1 (01:09:00):
It has.

Speaker 24 (01:09:02):
You know, the mainstream media is not an issue. Mainstream
media is still full of people who buy large responsible,
understand what they're writing about, and generally get it, you know,
not always totally right, but are in the ballpark. Social

(01:09:24):
media is completely different. Anyone can say what they like,
they don't understand sometimes what they're talking about. They are
vicious and you know if unfortunately it's almost impossible for
people in leadership positions to get away from that.

Speaker 1 (01:09:41):
They can't and that has an impact.

Speaker 24 (01:09:43):
It has an effect on their well being and it
just adds to the burden of the job they're doing.

Speaker 2 (01:09:51):
And then you think, who would want to do it?
You know, I mean, how much are they paid. Have
they paid enough for it?

Speaker 24 (01:09:57):
No, they're well below market rates in other areas, but
they're still okay remuneration wise. But the reason they do
it is the passion they have, either for the particular
sport that they are leading or just sport in general.

(01:10:18):
You know, it's I invariably come across good people in sport.
You don't come across too many dads. And these are
people who are talented and who are trying desperately to
do their best in difficult circumstances. They'll make mistakes, there's
no two ways about it. And you know it's just

(01:10:41):
bloody hard work hanging in there and getting more stuff
right than getting wrong Martin.

Speaker 2 (01:10:47):
And you know a lot of the cases that we've
started with rugby, netball, cricket, there's player input. Are players
have been given I don't want to say too much
say because it makes it sound like they're not important.
But can you listen to the players too much?

Speaker 24 (01:11:08):
Yes, just like you can listen to any other stakeholder
too much. But I am on record, over a long
period of time, I've been a strong.

Speaker 1 (01:11:17):
Supporter of.

Speaker 24 (01:11:20):
Players or athletes having input into the environments they operate with.
And so if that, it's not so much power as
just the opportunity to participate, either directly or through their representatives.
And you know, for example, in cricket, the relationship between
the Cricket Players Association and New Zealand Cricket over a

(01:11:42):
long period of time from two thousand and two through
too recently has been brilliant and has led to really
strong relationships. At the moment, it's a little bit volatile
and they're going to have to work through that on
all side over the.

Speaker 1 (01:12:00):
Next twenty twenty six.

Speaker 24 (01:12:03):
But I think if you get that relationship right, then
the sport and the athletes, the players themselves benefit hugely.
So I would hate to see it undermined. And I
think David Kirk did a really good job last week
of explaining really clearly that the review of the All

(01:12:25):
Black Coach received feedback from players that David and his
other ends that our administrators that asked for. So it
wasn't that the players stood up and said we're demanding
the removal of Scott Robertson. They answered a whole series
of questions as to how the environment was going, and
ultimately Kirk and the others just weighed that up and

(01:12:46):
said that on balance, they didn't feel confident that under
Robertson they'd be able to keep going in a positive trajectory,
so they needed to do something about it. Well, you
know that the players are entitled to have a say
in that, and so they should.

Speaker 2 (01:13:02):
Yeah, and if you ask them, you've got to expect
an answer, don't you.

Speaker 24 (01:13:06):
And are close to the action, and they will tell you.
But you've got to be smart enough also when you're
in Kirk's position or a CEO's position, to actually like
any feedback to balance up what you're hearing against other
feedback you're receiving and find the place where the truth

(01:13:28):
most likely lies. And I have faith and lots of
our leaders to be able to do that.

Speaker 2 (01:13:35):
But yeah, well we need to find three more of
them pretty quick, smart Martin, Thank you for that. Martin Steden,
former Chief Executive New Zealand Cricket, head of the twenty
eleven Rugby World Cup, an organizing team as well, knows
what who knows a thing or two about managing sport.
It's six thirteen on news talks, he'd be We'll get
to a market update next with Jeremy Hutton from Melford.

Speaker 1 (01:13:55):
It's the head Dupas Allen Dreve Full Show podcast on
powered by News Talk ZIBBI.

Speaker 2 (01:14:03):
Six sixteen News Talk zib Jeremy Hutton's with US Milford
Asset Management for our market update. Jeremy, good evening, Good evening,
Row going very good. Thanks. Can we start in the
US SO market's back open overnight after the public holiday Monday.
Bit of a wobbly over Greenland and Trump.

Speaker 7 (01:14:19):
Yeah, that's right.

Speaker 25 (01:14:20):
The Cell America trade was back on last night, and
the Nasdaq SMP five hundred indexes both down two percent,
and our own z X down over one percent as well.
So yeah, a bit of a wobbly, and most importantly
that US ten year bond that's broken higher, and you
know that's interest rates going up, which is never really

(01:14:41):
a good sign for markets, and politicians start to get
nervous too. So maybe even that rate, we'll contain some
of President Trump's tendencies at the moment.

Speaker 2 (01:14:50):
Yeah, right, let's go to New Zealand and zero this
accounting software business. Of course, everyone knows that sheer price
has been under some pressure, fell under the cycologe one
hundred dollars level. What is going on?

Speaker 25 (01:15:03):
Yeah, regarded as one of New Zealand's great companies, Zero
is going through a bit of a lean pad of
late this year. Price is almost halved from its one
hundred and ninety three dollars peak in June last year,
So in just six months it's halved, and it started
twenty twenty six pretty poorly as well, down over sixteen percent.
So yeah, painful for Zero investors generally accustomed to lots

(01:15:27):
of success, but Zero has been caught up in a
bit of this global software sell down and the sentiment's
really struggling. And as effectively, it's these recent AI models
and they're getting very good at producing basic and good
loocking software packages that pretty much the touch of a button.
So you know, some market commentators out there, they're even

(01:15:47):
calling it a potential existential threat to software and SaaS businesses.
So Zero is getting a little bit tied up with that.
We will follow that this year, you know, as the
AI models continue to develop and get a bit smarter,
we'll see what the impact it will have on these
software businesses.

Speaker 2 (01:16:03):
It was also they did a big acquisition out of
the US, didn't they last year, and that hasn't been
received well either.

Speaker 6 (01:16:09):
Yeah.

Speaker 25 (01:16:10):
More stock specific issue, but it hasn't helped the sentiment.
They bought this US payments business called Media paid a
princely some of two point five billion US dollars, so
a big chunky amountain and the market's given that feedback
pretty clearly that perhaps they paid a little bit too
much for it. But to be fair, you know, the
US it's always been been a key geography for Zero

(01:16:32):
to expand into, and also payments as a technology or
addition to their product. That's that's been the radar too.
But perhaps they could have done it a little bit
more efficiently. So the market is taking its time to
digest this transaction and figure out if it was a.

Speaker 7 (01:16:45):
Good deal or not.

Speaker 2 (01:16:46):
Jeremy, does that mean we should all go out and
buy shares then, well that's a million dollar question, Ryan.

Speaker 25 (01:16:54):
But you know no doubt that Zera remains a very
high quality company. It's got some great growth one runway
ahead of it, and we know it's had a lot
of success in New Zealand, Australia, in the UK. If
it cracks the US market in its core accounting software,
or if this payments expansion goes well, then the share
price could perform really, really strongly. You know, sometimes markets

(01:17:15):
get a little bit nervous and these great opportunities can
pop up. But the pressure's really on on the zero
management team to restore some of this confidence and get
and get the share price moving again.

Speaker 2 (01:17:26):
Appreciate that, Jeremy, Thank you, Jeremy Hutton from Milford. You're
on News Talk They're big nineteen after six showbiz and
Netflix News for you next. We all do it. We
overthink the big things like job security, mortgage rates, that
lump in your neck, and the little things too. What
night has Bin's Night? Why has cheese suddenly become a
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Speaker 26 (01:18:25):
Nzet, everything from SMEs to the big corporates, the business
hours with Ryan Bridge and MAS.

Speaker 1 (01:18:33):
Insurance and investments. Your futures in good hands US talks.

Speaker 2 (01:18:37):
That'd be six twenty three. Netflix update for you. Fourth
quarter revenue increase by almost eighteen percent to twelve billion dollars.
That's just for the quarter. They're looking now at twenty
twenty six revenue between fifty and fifty one billion dollars.
Thank you very much. Helped along by the likes of shows, shows,
by the likes of Stranger Things. You know, people go

(01:18:57):
on about Stranger Things very popular. No, he wants this
which is well worth watching, and wait for it, selling
Sunset apparently does very well for them. Now. The interesting
thing about Netflix is that they've announced, you know how
they want to buy Warner Brothers, the studio and the movies. Well,
they've changed their deal from cash and shares to all

(01:19:18):
cash baby twenty seven dollars seventy five a share, So
I may well yet sell mine twenty four after six.

Speaker 26 (01:19:25):
There's no business like show business.

Speaker 2 (01:19:34):
More trouble and paradise. I'm not talking about the Beckhams
this time. Remember the Netflix show Well, it was actually
a show from the two thousands, Queer Eye for the
Straight Guy. Netflix rebooted it and the two thousands reboot
was sorry, rebooted it recently. From the two thousands reboot
was a massive hit, made this new group household names overnight,

(01:19:55):
but the gaggle have drifted in the past couple of
years as the show has waned in popularity. Now they're
doing press for a final season, so one last hurrah
and things got a little awkward. Apparently. The latest debacle Karamo,
who's one of the Gay Guys group's self help coach,
pulled out of a major interview last minute because he

(01:20:15):
fared being bullied by his former cast mates.

Speaker 27 (01:20:18):
We received an email from Karama's assistant this morning which
said in Park, well, Karamo has felt mentally and emotionally
abused for years, and he's been advised by his therapist
to protect himself in his peace by non attending.

Speaker 2 (01:20:29):
Karamo Sorry, got the name wrong. His cast mates kept cordial,
wishing Caramo, well.

Speaker 22 (01:20:35):
Were you surprised that he's not here today.

Speaker 28 (01:20:39):
I think definitely a little surprised, but at the same time, like, look,
we're so sorry that he's not here. We fully support,
I think as a collective unit him taking care of
himself and to ackle what he's saying, we're here to
honor the legacy of a decade.

Speaker 2 (01:20:52):
There you go. Issues amongst the group apparently been going
on for a few years. The interior designer Bobby He
left the show in very dramatic fashion. I mean, as
anyone surprised we got five or six gays in our
room bitching. Come on, it's what we do. It's what
we do. The final season airing January twenty first, the

(01:21:13):
Queer Eye guys won't have to put up with each
other for much longer yet. Twenty six after six, Ryan Bridge, Hey,
you know I care well. I went there for the
first time the other day last weekend and wasn't too bad.
Initially we didn't know how to get into the building

(01:21:35):
because it's quite complicated. There is a big line of
cars and will let's avoid that go this way? Anyway,
we went there. It was fine, it was fine. Didn't
buy anything, didn't need to buy anything. But they've come
out with some numbers. So five hundred and sixty nine
thousand visitors between fourth December third January, so in a
month half a million people, not bad. How many of

(01:21:57):
those were repeat offenders forming store globally for food, So
we're stuffing our faces there, which I found the most
grotesque part of the whole experience, to be honest with you,
just actually I don't like people eating in mauls in general.
I think it's gross. Anyway.

Speaker 29 (01:22:13):
The most brought ion, well, you've got people heaving past
you like this was pat this place, people heaving past you,
breathing and coughing, and you're stuffing your face with a
hot dog.

Speaker 2 (01:22:26):
But weird. Do it in the privacy of your own
home would be my advice. Neus Talks.

Speaker 9 (01:22:32):
It be.

Speaker 1 (01:22:36):
If it's to do with money, it matters to you
the business hour with Ryan Bridge and Mas Insurance and investments.
Your futures in good hands. Us Talksibby.

Speaker 30 (01:22:47):
You need a came over a count.

Speaker 2 (01:22:57):
Pretty five away from seven News Talks. It would be
a great head company will get to the UK before
trop of the r over in Washington, DC. Well, Trump's
plane Air Force one I think has now taken off
again a new plane because the old one had a
mechanical problem. He's getting to Davos, Switzerland for the meeting
of the Rich people and the world leaders. Now in Washington,

(01:23:19):
his the business continues the course, and they are doing
a bit of a military build up in nearer well
in the Middle East in anticipation of what might happen
with Iran. And his advisors. This is a report from
the Wall Street Journal this afternoon. His advisors apparently are
rejigging what they had initially advised him and how you

(01:23:41):
might respond militarily to what's going on in Iran. Now.
He has repeatedly privately used the word, according to this report,
decisive when describing what effect he would like the US
action to have on Iran. They have said could try
and force some kind of regime change there, how will
that go? Or he could target quite specifically, target the

(01:24:04):
revolutionary Guard and try and destabilize it. I think we're
just basically going to have to expect a rolling mall
of Trump meddling with the world until he leaves office.
Like this is a guy seventy nine years old, hell
bent on being in the history books something anything, and
he's basically going to stamp his mark on the globe

(01:24:26):
until he is gone. And we are only a year
in twenty four to seven and bread read. With interest
rates falling over the course of the last year, borrowers
have been tossing up when to fix and for how
long as you know. In hindsight, it now looks that
a significant number of homeowners who tried to pick the
trough in the cycle actually missed it. Jane Tips Trainey

(01:24:47):
is the herold's Willington Business Editor's been looking at this. Jane,
good evening. Hi, Ryan, So if you're still waiting now,
you've waited too long, haven't you look?

Speaker 31 (01:24:57):
I mean, you never say never. As you just described,
we live in a crazy world. But from what we
currently see, it seems like the fixed interest rates at
least it seems like they reached their bottom and around
November in December they actually started tracking up. And based
on the new economic data we've had come out this year,

(01:25:19):
it seems like the economy is actually doing okay. We've
got manufacturing as strong, services sector is strong. Seems like
actually the riskers that we might have a bit more
inflation than expected, which suggests it's very unlikely the OCR
will fall further. So it really does seem like we've
had the lowest of the rates. It seems like we've

(01:25:41):
already seen them.

Speaker 2 (01:25:42):
You've been looking at how many we're trying to pick
the trough. How many people were betting on rates dropping
further after the last OCR cut in November, right.

Speaker 31 (01:25:53):
Yeah, that's right. So the Reserve Bank collects all this
mortgage data from banks, and according to that data, in November,
that's for the latest time that we have it for
about half of new mortgage lending done in November was
floating versus fixed. So that is actually in November that
was a super high percentage. In fact, it was forty

(01:26:16):
nine percent. That was the highest percentage on the Reserve
Banks records that go back to twenty twenty one. It
was the highest percentage of a new mortgage lending that
was floating. So, you know, that suggests to me that
a whole bunch of people in November thought will sit
tight for a bit, will wait for interest rates to
fall further. Once they do, then we'll lock in for

(01:26:37):
like two years or three years, we even you know,
eighteen months, but we'll just sit tight for a bit longer.
So what ended up happening for those people was that
in late November the Reserve Bank did cut the OCR,
but the market after that was surprised by some of
the Reserve Bank's commentary and interest rates actually started rising.

(01:26:59):
So you know, I don't know if listeners and readers recall,
but you know there was a sort of like a
flurry of banks lifting their longer term interest rates in December.
So for all those people who in November, there's a
large portion of them waiting for the for the cuts
that the OCR cut did come, but then unexpectedly the

(01:27:19):
market started going north because it was surprised by the
Reserve Bank's commentary. So if they did, you know, at
that point want to rush to fix that would have
been a pretty short time. Between the Reserve Bank cutting
the OCR in late November and banks lifting lifting rates,
they would have had probably only a few weeks to
rush in and lock in those those rates.

Speaker 32 (01:27:42):
You know.

Speaker 31 (01:27:43):
I talked to a mortgage broker and he said, yes,
there was a big flurry. People did rush you know,
but of course you have to it is interesting to
look at the starter, but you do have to look
at the bigger picture. Thirty year mortgage, twenty year mortgage.
You know, there are all sorts of ups and downs,
but you know it's interesting. It is interesting nonetheless, and
you know, if you have a big mortgage, a few
percentage points does make a difference.

Speaker 2 (01:28:04):
I was going to say, what do we know what
the difference? You know, if you've got a million dollar mortgage,
would it in the scheme of things be a massive
difference to you whether you you know, whether you in November,
December or January.

Speaker 31 (01:28:18):
So the hikes that the banks did was that they
lifted their longer term rates by about thirty basis points,
So you know that's a notable lift. I mean, it
probably depends on how price sensitive you are. And you know,
whether you were if you were part of that cohort
that was trying to time the market sitting there on floating,

(01:28:40):
you know, paying a bit more to be on floating,
waiting to pick the bottom, then you know you might
have been a bit disappointed. Probably depends on your you know,
your your view on these things as to how gutting
that would.

Speaker 2 (01:28:53):
Be good to have you on the show as always.
Tony tips Training is the heralds Wellington Business editor and
has a store out in the Herald about all of this.
You can go and read it ended Herald dot co
do building Z nineteen to seven on News. You're on
News Talks there b coming up next we'll talk to
Gavin Gray out of the UK and at Davos, which
is where Trump is trying to get to. Attempting to

(01:29:14):
get to will get too shortly. There are there's one
of those letters going around like really rich people who
sign an open letter four hundred millionaires and billionaires. Doesn't
break down how many billionaires there are and how many
millionaires there are, but anyway, four hundred of them have
signed an open leader twenty four countries calling on global
leaders to increase taxes on the super rich. Among them

(01:29:38):
Mark Ruffalo, the actor filmmaker. He's in there, a handful
of global oligarchs with extreme wealth. This is the part
of the letter. Have brought up our democracies, taken over
our governments, gaged the freedom of our media, placed a
stranglehold on technology and innovation, deep in poverty and social exclusion,
and accelerated the breakdown of our planet. Treasure rich and

(01:30:01):
poor alike, they say, is being eaten away by those
intent on growing the Gulf between their vast power and
everyone else. Now, I don't think you can argue that
that's not happening. I think you know, everyone knows that
we've got more billionaires now than we have ever had before.
But we also have fewer people and less people in
poverty than we have ever had before. So the system works.

(01:30:24):
The system just might be working too well at one end,
if you know what I mean. The question I guess
is when is there a tipping point? Like when do
you get to the point where people are getting pitchforks
out and do you need to tax really wealthy people
to stop that from happening. I don't think we're there yet,
but I can imagine, particularly with AI, if it takes
everyone's jobs, that that day will probably come at some point,

(01:30:47):
won't it. Seventeen to two seven News Talks E B.

Speaker 1 (01:30:51):
Crudging the numbers and getting the results. It's Way and
Bridge on the Business Hour with maths, insurance and investments,
Your Futures, Good heads us talks.

Speaker 2 (01:31:01):
It'd be It is called a siven On News Talks B.
It's going to Given Gray, UK correspondent, Given, Welcome to
the show. Hi there an now tell us about the
European Parliament what they're planning to do on tariffs.

Speaker 33 (01:31:16):
Yeah, this is going to be very very interesting because
of course Donald Trump due to arrive in Davos for
the World Economic Forum, tensions running high already over his
comments about Greenland, which is now doubled down on as
well in the last few hours, saying that it's a
one way thing. He's not going back on his demand
to take Greenland and threatening some European countries with tariffs.

(01:31:39):
Those countries saying right, well, we're not just going to
stand there and take it. And it looks like the
European Parliament today will later announce it is going to
suspend approval of a US trade deal agreed back in July.
It was trade, a trade deal announced with much fanfair
with Ursula Vonderline, one of the EU big weeks as
it were, and Donald Trump. That was all after Donald

(01:32:01):
Trump threatened them with thirty percent tariffs. The agreement in
the end was fifteen percent, so yeah, slightly better but
still tariffs, and it was heralded. Is yep, everyone's now happy. Well,
the EU is not happy over Donald Trump's announcement at
Greenland and has decided right, well, we're just going to
shelve that, put it on ice and start to put

(01:32:22):
a bit of pressure on The interesting thing about this
is it may now open up questions about whether the
EU is ready to move forward mid more retaliation against
the UITs, the so called Bazooka measure, which would see
the BLOCK effectively use an anti coercion rule that it
introduced in case China got difficult with them. And this

(01:32:45):
will basically mean that American companies could be barred from
EU contracts, they could be barred from the free trade market.
And yeah, they could be retaliatory tariffs the other way as.

Speaker 2 (01:32:57):
Well, right, keep a bridge to that one. What about
the train crow another train crash in Spain.

Speaker 33 (01:33:05):
Yeah, and this comes just a few days afterwards that
there have been, of course, the crash on Sunday down
in southern Spain that has killed at least forty now
is the latest estimate. There is believed to be bodies
potentially still trapped in the wreckage of that crash. But

(01:33:25):
and now a train driver has been killed and at
least thirty seven others injured, five seriously, when a commuter
train derailed and crashed near Barcelona are down on the
south coast and yeah, it comes just sort of forty
eight hours on a little bit more after this crash
in the south of Spain. Now, according to local officials,
the train collided with a retaining wall which had fallen

(01:33:48):
onto the track and apparently now we understand all the
passengers have been removed from the train. But as I said,
there are five seriously injured and one dead. And it
comes as heavy storms a bat at northeastern Spain and
coastal regions, and they're on high alert because of the weather.
So this was obviously a huge emergency effort as well,

(01:34:10):
thirty five crews sent by the local fire service, and
I think the Spanish rail system very much under scrutiny
after these two crashes.

Speaker 2 (01:34:21):
Now, finally French police have started in discipling migrant boats
on the water for the very first time.

Speaker 33 (01:34:27):
Yes, after huge amounts of pressure from the UK. So
what the French were doing was effectively only intervening when
they see migrants on beaches ready to get on a boat.
They wouldn't physically go in the water, and that was
because the excuse being used was it might endanger the
lives of those on the journey, but because they are

(01:34:48):
already endanger in their lives by getting onto very small boats,
often unseaworthy boats, to try and cross to the UK.
The UK said, look, this is now being used and
abused to buy the people smugglers, because what they were
doing was they were launching a boat with just one
or two people on board from a canal slightly in

(01:35:08):
land and then there were simply motoring up and down
the coast and the asylum seekers would rush into the
water and then get onto that so called taxi boats
effectively and to get on there in order to get
the journey across, and the police, French police would simply
stand there and watch, saying well, we're not going in
the water, and it made people here in the UK

(01:35:31):
absolutely irate. There was even a small sort of band
of people from a society here in the UK that
went over to France and were themselves going into the water,
believe it or not, and knifing the boats, damaging the boats,
slitting the inflatable boats so that they couldn't make it across,
and they were threatened with prosecution by France. But finally,

(01:35:52):
now the French, who were paid millions of pounds a
year by the British to try and stop the boats
are actually getting into the water and starting to do this.
They actually stopped their first one. It has been announced
back at the weekend, but we've only just found this
out and Ryan, it really has been something this government's
been keen they do. But then bewill the numbers in
any way damp and down. Last year there was a

(01:36:14):
massive number of people that came to the UK from France,
standing at thirty six and a half thousand.

Speaker 2 (01:36:21):
Appreciate your time giving. Thank you, Gevin Gray are UK
Europe Correspondent. It is nine to seven News Talk ZIBB.

Speaker 1 (01:36:28):
It's the hitherto See Allan Drive full show podcast on
iHeartRadio powered by News Talk ZIBB.

Speaker 2 (01:36:35):
Who's Talk zib It is siven Away from seven now.
Yesterday we talked about the Bickhams and this whole scandal
that's going on. In the scandal is the Sun Brooklyn
posting on social media saying my mum's evil and you know,
ruining my relationship blubbah. Today. To be honest, I think
the headline today has been a little misleading. The headline
has been all day that dare David Beckham speaks out

(01:37:02):
or you know, finally breaks in silence, I think was
the way that they put it. What happened was he
appeared on Squawtkbox, which is a CNBC show because he's
at Davos and because he's rich and that's where they go,
and he was asked questions about social media. It was
a panel about social media. Here is what he had
to say about that.

Speaker 16 (01:37:23):
You know, I've been able to use my platform and
my following, you know, for UNISEF, and it's been the
biggest tool to make people aware of what's going on
around the world for children, and.

Speaker 7 (01:37:33):
I've tried to do the same.

Speaker 16 (01:37:34):
I've tried to do the same with my children to
educate them. They make mistakes. Children are allowed to make mistakes.
That's how they learned. So that's what I tried to
teach my kids. But you know, you have to sometimes
let them make those mistakes as well.

Speaker 2 (01:37:50):
So how did the interviewer not follow up? I mean,
maybe there was discussion later, but follow up the question
about them. Maybe they weren't allowed to and that's how
you get them on the show. But anyway, it was
it's quite a veiled message to Brooklyn perhaps or veiled
message about Brooklyn.

Speaker 1 (01:38:04):
I don't know.

Speaker 2 (01:38:05):
Depends how much you want to read into it, I guess,
and it's what are we going out to tonight?

Speaker 34 (01:38:09):
The City by Edge Sharing the play us out tonight
because it's a big night for Wellington. Ed Shearan show
is happening at sky Stadium. The show should actually be
happening already in terms of the support acts, but Ed's
expected to take the stage at about eight o'clock. There's
a bit of the setlist that Ed does on this
particular tour where he does like fan requests. So he
actually did some reasonably interesting deep cuts at his Auckland

(01:38:30):
show and this was one of them. The City was
a track off his very first album, debut album Plus,
so he's clearly rearing and ready to go with his
whole catalog if he needs to, depending on what people request.
So it could be interesting to see what he plays
in Wellington.

Speaker 2 (01:38:43):
Tonight, certainly would be. I hope they're enjoying the concert
down and they're hopefully the weather is not too bad.
Enjoy your evening, everybody. It's coming up to seven o'clock
here on News Talk seb back tomorrow.

Speaker 30 (01:38:58):
Strange but your this is now my hole, My hole.

Speaker 35 (01:39:18):
Gounning on the back street. Stop pissed in in the
back seat. I'm blazing on the street.

Speaker 30 (01:39:29):
What I do isn't unto you the city never see
Send that flix to.

Speaker 22 (01:39:35):
My lunsa.

Speaker 7 (01:39:38):
And my ears.

Speaker 35 (01:39:38):
Black sound in the city like that coded my head.

Speaker 7 (01:39:45):
Do I need this?

Speaker 21 (01:39:47):
Keep me alive?

Speaker 32 (01:39:49):
The traffic, stocks and stuff, but I need to the
lone lone calls me stranger.

Speaker 2 (01:40:07):
This is none.

Speaker 35 (01:40:19):
Punning on the back street. Stop piss in and the vaccine.
Am lazing on the street.

Speaker 30 (01:40:31):
What I do isn't unto you, sitting never secen.

Speaker 2 (01:40:34):
That makes two.

Speaker 1 (01:40:37):
For more from Hither Duplessy Alan Drive. Listen live to
news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.

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